The Crane Cub Restaurant New York City
INTRODUCING CRANE CLUB
Located in West Chelsea, Crane Club offers a vibrant dining experience led by Chef Melissa Rodriguez with a menu that highlights seasonal ingredients prepared over wood fire.
HOURS OF OPERATION
Sunday–Wednesday 5PM–11PM
Thursday–Saturday 5PM–12AM
85 10th Ave (at 16th St.)
New York, NY 10011
The Cuisine
Chef Rodriguez’s menu emphasizes wood fire cooking and the pure flavors of seasonal ingredients sourced from small regional farms and fisheries, showing as much care to vegetables as to meats and seafood. Grilled dishes, cooked on a 12-foot custom Mibrasa grill, showcase flavors that are smokier, spicier, and more complex than expected: charred lobster salad; wood-smoked clams; beef short rib, braised then wood-grilled. Raw bar specialties — such as shrimp crudo or razor clams in vinaigrette — are served tableside from a custom cart. A broad list of vegetable and potato sides joins a variety of grains and pastas. The menu is à la carte, with additional large-format “feasts” served family-style.
Experience Crane Club
Chef Melissa Rodriguez
The restaurant is helmed by chef Melissa Rodriguez, who has received two Michelin stars and a four-star review from The New York Times. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, Melissa Rodriguez started her professional culinary career with Elaine Bell Catering and at Oceana. In 2006, she was hired as a line cook at Daniel Boulud’s flagship Restaurant Daniel, where she quickly rose the ranks to sous chef. After five years at Daniel, Melissa joined the team at Del Posto where she was soon promoted to Chef de Cuisine. Two years later, Melissa was named Executive Chef, making her the first woman at the helm of a restaurant awarded four stars by the New York Times.
Like most New York restaurants, Del Posto closed in March 2020 due to the Covid pandemic. In the summer of 2021, Melissa partnered with Restaurateur Jeff Katz–with whom she worked for almost a decade at Del Posto to acquire the space at 85 Tenth Avenue. In 2022, the pair opened a trio of restaurants: a fine Italian restaurant called Al Coro; a subterranean cocktail bar called Discolo; and a pizza restaurant next door called Mel’s. Just months after it opened, Al Coro was awarded two stars from the Michelin Guide. In 2023 Melissa and Jeff partnered with the global restaurant group, Tao Group Hospitality to conceptualize and open Crane Club.
